The Masked Truth
by David Knight
Summary: (Co-Written with Wingzero) The X-men are fictional characters, or are they? Find out what happens when a young woman and her friend enter a mysterious costume shop. What surprises await them in this seemingly ordinary place? [Chapter 2 Added]
1. Inheritance

**_Disclamer:_**_ The X-Men do not belong to us, they belong to Marvel Comics. We do however own Paige McGrath, Kianna Lee, Brian Hudson and Shane Diego. If you have any questions, please contact either of us at ericpaladin@hotmail.com or nekowingzero@yahoo.com._

**The Masked Truth  
By David Knight and Wingzero**

**Part 1  
Inheritance**__

_'Dear Miss McGrath,_

_On November 3, 2003, your late uncle John Oliver passed away, leaving behind a will and testament. We were unable to contact you as we could not locate you until after the reading of the will and testament. In his will, your uncle left into your care his business, 'The Disguise Parlor', a costume shop in North Ridge, New York. We hereby give you the will and deed to this property as well as the keys to the shop in this letter. If you wish to sell or wish to handle its ownership or have any further questions, please contact our offices. Our condolences on your loss._

_                                                                                          Signed,_

_                                                                                          Michael Jeralds  
                                                                                          Jakobson and Murphy at Law.'_

Paige McGrath took her glasses off and folded the letter back into the envelope she had been given by what was now the only family she had left. Her aunt and uncle. It just seemed that every time she turned around, she was hearing news of death. Ever since her parents died in that car crash when she was eight, people just had a habit of dying on her. Her parents, her grandparents, her cousins... only her mother's sister and her husband were the only family left, and even then, they were hardly ever around, having to work hard day and night to provide for her and their own two kids, the twin terrors Anthony and Anita.

That was also why she wanted to be alone when reading this. She felt best when in the park, so quiet and peaceful, and very open.

It was also where she could cry if she wanted to... which she did.

* * *

Kianna Lee had received a phone call from her best friend. They were planning on meeting in the park to hang out and relax for a while, as they had hectic schedules. Since today was warm, she had decided to wear her baby blue tank top with a denim button down t-shirt and blue shorts. She had placed a couple of blue butterfly clips in her hair to keep her long bangs out of her face. On her shoulder, she had her usual laptop carrying case that she took almost everywhere with her. She didn't expect to see her friend crying. "Paige?"

Paige turned her head up to see her friend and tried to wipe the tears from her face, "Oh, Kianna. I'm sorry I forgot about calling you earlier... must be like a real mess huh?"

"It's okay; things happen," Kianna sympathized. "Is there anything you want to tell me?" She reached into her laptop bag to fish out a tissue from those travel sized packages. 

"I feel like I'm a black cat. Every year I lose another relative. This year it's my uncle Oliver. You know all I have left now are my aunt, uncle and their two kids," Paige muttered as she took the offered tissue. "Why do things like this have to happen to me? It's not fair at all. Why do I have to keep on losing members of my family?!"

"I don't know," Kianna said. "Maybe some things were meant to be, but we'll never know. Fate has a cruel way of handling things. Sometimes, they work out for the better." She paused to think. "You know family doesn't always have to be related through blood. I consider you to be my best friend and a sister."

Paige looked up to her best friend, her eyes still tearing up a bit, but she had a smile on her face. "Thanks Kianna. I needed to hear that."

"You're welcome," Kianna said with a smile on her face. "How about we do something to take your mind off it for awhile?"

"Yeah," Paige nodded but as she got up an idea came to her mind. "Well, we could go see this costume shop I now own."

"Costume Shop?" Kianna blinked.

"My uncle left it to me in his will," Paige explained. "I don't know if I'll keep it or sell it, but I definitely would like to take a look at it."

"We could do that," Kianna agreed. "I have my car parked in the parking lot. You do have the directions to get there?"

"Yeah, I do." Paige nodded, "You drive, I'll direct."

* * *

Once the two girls had driven to the costume shop, they were surprised to see how what it looked like. It was located in the back of a mall, where hardly anyone visited. The store was small compared to the others and it appeared that no one had been there for a while. Through the window they could see several realistic looking costumes. 

"This is some shop you have here," Kianna commented. 

"Yeah I'll say." Paige blinked. "I can't believe I never knew my uncle owned a place like this. I know I didn't see him that often, but I would have thought he would have told me about it."

Kianna whistled. "Come on, let's check it out. Did they send you a key to the shop?"

"Yeah," Paige said, holding it up before she opened the lock and the two walked into the shop. As they walked in, they saw some of the costumes and masks that were on the walls. Some of them were horror monsters like Dracula or the Bride of Frankenstein. Others were of cartoon characters like the Flintstones or the Jetsons.

"Check this out," Kianna said, holding up a costume of Bugs Bunny. "What's up, Doc?"

"Very funny." Paige rolled her eyes at her friend. "You know Halloween is like months away. Don't know what I'd do with a place like this. I mean it has to be open and make money or else someone will take it from me."

"Maybe you could sell other merchandise like practical jokes and gags," Kianna suggested. She neatly folded the costume and placed it back where she found it. "They're always in season and I usually see costume shops selling them year round." 

"Yeah, maybe," Paige mused as her eyes went over toward the back of the store, which was marked 'employees only'. "I'm going to head into the back for a moment, okay? Just want to give this place a through look over."

"You want me to help you categorize these costumes and see what else you have in the front?" Kianna offered.

Paige nodded, "Thanks. That would help." She didn't expect to take very long. All she expected was dust and boxes. What she found was dust, boxes, spider webs, and as she went further in, something totally different.

"What the..." she muttered as she turned on the lights and her eyes went wide as she saw what was there. 

They were full size human bodysuit costumes. Each of them was made to look like a certain person or character. She saw there was a pair for Bill and Hillary Clinton, for Elvis, for the Statue of Liberty, and many others. __Must be where the rentals are stored,__ she thought.

Her eyes, however, caught sight of a particular costume standing in the left hand corner. It was on a wooden model to show what it would look like if someone was wearing it.

It was of a woman in a yellow body suit with blue sections, blue rectangles on the outer thighs and upper arms, a small patch of blue above the ankle. Blue from the neck all the way down to the top of the thighs, yellow gloves and boots. In the front, Paige could see the chest area had been padded, to give the look of a full figure. At first she couldn't understand why but when she saw the head of the costume she knew. It was an elegant female mask. Around the head, long red hair flowed out, but the most wonderful thing was the beautiful face.

That face was very easily recognized by Paige as her secret all time favorite comic book character. "Jean Grey... Phoenix of the X-Men..." she breathed, not believing how realistic, how detailed looking the costume was, and it was her height, no less. She had loved the X-Men comics, though there were those who criticized them, saying they either helped mutant hysteria or made mutants look like monsters.

That was something that drove her up a wall every time she heard it in school. People were still prejudiced against mutants, even though they looked human, most of them. It was their powers that made people afraid of them. Maybe that's why it was understandable that occasionally they would hear on the news the report of a mutant attack somewhere. She couldn't believe though how people could just take the actions of one individual and hold an entire race by that standard. They looked for the bad instead of the good.

__It is such a stupid thing.__ Paige thought in disgust, __If anything, the comic books show what could happen to our world if we allow our arrogance to take over.__ She sometimes wished she were an X-Man, specifically her favorite Jean Grey. Trying to make the world a safer place for all. 

As she looked at the costume, a smile came to her face, __Well, wait a minute. Who says I can't...__ With that thought in mind, she did something she never thought she'd do unless she was in her own room with the door locked. 

Take off her clothes... and put something else on.

* * *

Kianna had been going through the several costumes in the front. She had booted up her laptop to help her with keeping track of the different costumes. In one file, she listed them according to name. She also had the sizes, quantity, and accessories if any. She had finished with one section already. 

"Hey, Paige, are you busy back there?" Kianna called out. "I was wondering if this display needs to be changed or anything." 

"No, I'm fine. In fact, doing pretty well," Paige's voice came out from the back.

"Well, once you're finished back there, could you come and check out the display?" Kianna requested. She had moved onto the other side of the store with her laptop, before starting to look over the costumes there. 

"I'm done already," Paige's voice spoke out and Kianna hear her footsteps coming from the back but didn't see her walk out as she was getting her laptop set up on a counter, "Sorry if I was worrying you but I was a little busy with what I was doing back there."

"That's okay," Kianna assured her best friend. When she turned around, she had to hold onto the counter as she saw the spitting image of Jean Grey of the mutant group the X-Men. "Is that you, Paige?"

'Jean's' mouth broke into a broad smile, "You should see the look on your face. It is sooooooooooo priceless!"

"It _is_ you!" Kianna calmed down. "Very funny." __At least she's smiling now. I'm glad to see her happy even if it is at my expense._ _"Do you think there are more of those costumes? I wonder if there's a Storm costume. She was my favorite character." 

"I'm sure we could find out, come on." Paige smirked as she and Kianna started walking back, but she caught sight of herself in a full-length mirror and stopped to look. She ran her hands over her entire body. In this costume it actually felt like it was hers. She finally ended looking at her chest, "My gosh... I'm just beautiful and busty all over... I just wish I could have some of this for real."

Kianna wandered around the back, rifling through the costumes. She had found some other X-Men costumes, but they weren't the right one. There were a Gambit, a Shadowcat, a Rogue, and a Cyclops costume. She sighed and continued searching for the elusive one she wanted.

"Paige, I can't seem to find the Storm costume," Kianna called out, a little frustrated. "Maybe there isn't one."

"Ahem," Paige spoke from behind her, pushing a model in front of herself to show Kianna. "I assume this is what you are looking for?"

It was of an African American woman in a completely white outfit, which clung to her body like a second skin. Her white gloves stopped short after her wrists. A long white cape hung from her shoulders. On her feet, she wore white boots with high heels. Both of her shoulders had the symbol of the X-Men on them, a red circle with a black 'x' inside it. On the dummy head was the elegant and realistic mask of the woman. There were lightning shaped earrings on her ears, and her long untamed white hair flowed down her back, stopping at her waist.

Paige smiled, flashing her perfectly white teeth in a big grin. "One Storm costume ready to go for my best friend."

"Thanks!" Kianna accepted the Storm costume. "I'm going to try it on. I can't wait to see what I look like." She scrambled to the makeshift-changing booth behind the stacked boxes. 

"I'll be waiting outside." Paige smiled as she waited outside the room, deciding to not see her friend till she had made the change into her character. __Wonder how she'll look. Probably pretty good. I'm kind of amazed how realistic this looks. Even if I open this place up, no way am I letting anyone take this costume._ _She wrapped her arms around herself, as if declaring it her personal property. __Its mine. No one else can wear this but me.__

Minutes later, Kianna emerged from the changing room and headed towards the front. She went straight to the mirror, where she twirled to get a good look at herself. __It's amazing. I never thought it would look this real on me._ _She turned to face her best friend. "What do you think?" 

Paige let out a gasp when she saw Storm walking out past her and checking herself in the mirror. It was only when Kianna spoke that she knew it was her friend. "I think if I hadn't given you the costume I might have thought you really were Storm," she muttered. "Whoever made these costumes made them look totally realistic."

"You can say that again," Kianna agreed. She slapped her forehead when she remembered something. "I forgot to put her trademark earrings on." She fished through the pockets of the suit to find the earrings. When she had them on, she took another good look at herself. "Much better."

Paige stood right beside her friend as they struck a pose in the mirror. They then broke out in laughter, leaning up against each other. "You know something. If anyone said I'd be dressing up like my favorite heroine, I'd tell them they were crazy."

"Same here," Kianna agreed.

Paige thought to say something else, however she stopped when she saw several papers from the counter starting to float in the air... toward her. "What the..." As she backed away the papers fell to the ground.

"That's strange, very strange," Kianna gasped, not realizing she was levitating a few inches off the ground. 

"Tell me about it. I mean pages don't just go flying around on their own. I mean..." she stopped when she looked at her friend. "Um... Kianna..." 

"What?"

"You do realize you're floating half a foot in the air, right?" Paige gasped.

Kianna's eyes went wide when she looked down at her feet. They were indeed about half a foot off the ground. Upon the realization, she fell on her rear with a loud thud. "That's going to leave a bruise. I think we have the powers of the X-Men, but how?"

"Don't be silly." Paige shook her head. "It's not possible. They're just comic book characters. They aren't real." When she started to see papers coming toward her again she just stepped back and they fell to the ground. "Okay I'm getting out of this costume right now." She went to pull the mask off by the hair only to feel pain. "What the? That's not supposed to happen."

"What's not supposed to happen?" Kianna asked.

Paige tried again to take the mask off, she tried to pull it off her face but it wasn't working at all. "Oh my God..." she whispered. "I can't get it off... I can't get this mask off me!"

"No way," Kianna gasped. Then she tried to take her own mask off, to no avail. "I'm stuck in mine too. Let's see if we can try to take the costume off. I know mine had a zipper in the back so we can try that." 

Paige felt the back of her costume but instead of finding a zipper she found certain spots that seemed to loosen the suit a little when touched. She was able to start taking it off. "Well, I don't have a zipper but I'm taking it off now. Maybe the mask just sealed with the rest of the bodysuit. If that's the case then..." She had finished getting past her top and had reached her waist when she stopped, staring at herself in the mirror. She felt herself getting very, very weak.

"Are you okay?" Kianna asked, very worried as she rushed towards her best friend without tripping on the scattered costume parts. She caught Paige before she swayed too much and crashed to the ground. 

"Kianna... pinch me, okay..." she said in a very hushed voice.

Nodding her head, Kianna pinched Paige on her nose. "Maybe we should put these back on you," she thought out loud. 

Paige just stared at her reflection and stared hard. She started to laugh, though it was a bitter sound.

"Paige?" Kianna asked, concerned for her friend's sanity. All Paige was wearing now was a simple blue sports bra... but as she looked at the top of the body suit she had been wearing, there wasn't a sign of the padding that had been in the chest area. Her own face started to become pale as Paige spoke once more.

"Ironic isn't it. I was just reminiscing about wanting be like my favorite heroine..." Paige choked as she put her hands through her long red hair, "Now I 'am' her. Body and powers."

"So that means, I've become Storm," Kianna whispered in an eerie voice.

"At least as far as the body and powers are concerned," Paige said softly. "We have no idea how this happened, who is responsible or how to undo it. Most of all, we aren't even teenagers. We're adults and there's no way we can go back home looking like this." She felt like breaking down in tears now; the irony of all of this was not lost on her. Her life ruined by a simple moment of enjoying a fantasy.

"We'll have to find some way to get these off," Kianna said, tugging on her white flowing cape. "But in the meantime, we should concentrate on controlling our powers. I know Storm has some dangerous talents."

"How can you be so calm about this, Kianna?" Paige asked in disbelief as she started to get up, pulling the body suit back over her upper body. She didn't want to be reminded of her new body's attributes at the moment. "We're stuck in a nightmare and there's no way out!"

"Someone has to be rational around here," Kianna said calmly. She then noticed several small objects starting to levitate. "Take deep breaths. Everything is going to be okay as long as we don't panic." 

"How can you think that!" Paige snapped, not even noticing the floating objects, "Everything's been going to hell for me for so long and this is just the last straw! I can't take this! I CAN'T!" Without even realizing it, she telekinetically shoved her best friend into the wall, hard. That plus seeing the objects floating around made her stop, and everything fell down. "... Oh my God... KIANNA!!!" she screamed as she rushed to her friend who was slumped against the wall. "Kianna, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm so just so confused and scared right now!" she sobbed, the tears coming down her face as she couldn't believe what she had just done, "I just don't know what to do."

If she was in her old body, Kianna wouldn't have been able to survive, in the worst case scenario. In the best case, she would have been rendered unconscious. 

But since she now had the body of Storm, it only knocked her out for a few seconds. Her eyes fluttered open. "It's okay," she said. "I know how it feels to be scared, but we shouldn't let fear control our lives. Whatever we go through, we know we have each other for support and guidance. Stay calm and your powers won't be out of control." She tried to stand up, but she was wobbling so she leaned on the wall.

"I'm so sorry." Paige shook her head. She looked over to the side and saw a chair from the back room. Looking at it and stretching her hand out as she had seen in the comics, she tried to move the chair to them. Gently, as she didn't want it flying towards them. It wasn't a slow process nor was it a fast one. Still, the simple fact that there was the chair moved on its own was enough to make Paige marvel at what she was doing. Once it finally came to her, she helped Kianna sit. 

"Thanks," Kianna said as she plopped herself into the chair. "Hm, I think we could use some lights around here." Since the place hadn't been opened for a while, there was no electricity. She pointed her finger at a light and concentrated on forming a low voltage thunderbolt. A spark came from her finger and a yellow light shot from her finger to the light, causing it to turn on. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of this." 

"Wow..." Paige let her jaw drop open when she saw that. "You just... you just made lightning..."

"Of course," Kianna giggled. "That's one of Storm's many abilities. She has the power to manipulate the weather. I have to learn how to control these powers; otherwise, I could cause a national disaster." She shuddered at the thought. "Remember to stay calm at all times and you should be fine. Trust me on this." 

"I hear you. I was freaked out before, I still am, but now..." she stopped and realized something else. "... uh-oh."

"What?"

"I can't believe I forgot about this," Paige groaned as she put her hands over her face, "I'm not only a powerful telekinetic but I also have telepathic powers. I can barely handle telekinesis, how am I going to be able to handle reading people's minds? Hearing their thoughts?"

"I wish Professor Xavier was here," Kianna sighed. She tried standing up and managed it without falling over. "I'll have to call my parents and tell them that I'll be spending the night at your place. You'll have to call your aunt and uncle and tell them you're staying at my place. We'll crash here until we figure something out. It's a temporary solution." 

"Yeah, it's temporary. We'll only buy ourselves a day at best before someone figures out something's up," Paige sighed. "Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday. If we had fall registration tomorrow we'd have some definite problems."

"That's for sure," Kianna agreed. "We should see how many costumes there are. Who knows what would happen if these fall into the wrong hands? First thing's first. We need to get a phone."

"I have a cell in my purse," Paige said, "Let's start making some phone calls."

* * *

An hour later, both girls had made their calls to their respective families and were now checking over the back storage area.  There were many different costumes, however they had been able to make a distinction between the superheroes ... and to their dismay, supervillians.

Paige was able to recognize all the superheroes, mainly because they had all at one point or another had been X-men. "Iceman, Shadowcat, Gambit, Rouge, Cyclops, Havoc and Polaris," she said aloud as if to make a count. There had been seven all together. She turned toward the supervillians next. "Pyro, Avalanche, the Black Queen, Mastermind, the Blob, Juggernaught, along with several of Mr. Sinister's groupies, the Nasty Boys." She turned to look at her friend, "Thankfully, I don't see costumes for Sinister himself, Magneto or Apocalypse." She gave a shudder as she thought of any one of those three incredibly powerful beings being in here, and the possibility that someone would put such a thing on and become one of them.

"We should probably put those in a safe place for now," Kianna suggested as she floated over towards Paige. She was trying to get used to her ability to fly, but decided on practicing on hovering for now. 

Paige just let her jaw hang when she saw that. "You-you-you..."

"I what?" Kianna inquired, tilting her head. 

"You're flying, you silly goose!" Paige finally blurted out, "You think I shouldn't be surprised about something like that?"

"Oh," Kianna laughed nervously. "I was practicing controlling my powers so I decided to start with something small and simple. Hovering is as basic as I can get with Storm's abilities." 

"I don't know if I'll ever get used to these powers," Paige said softly as she telekinetically lifted the costumes up and put them back up standing. Once she had done that, her brow had trails of sweat running down it. "Dang... that was tough to do... its like trying to use a muscle I've never had before."

Kianna simply laughed. "You don't understand the concept of using your powers." She floated down to the ground. "You're using more energy than required. I can't explain it to you, but just go with the flow. Allow your body to relax and let the tension go." 

Paige just shook her head, "Amazing. Me, the girl who knows just about everything about X-Men, is being upstaged by the girl I introduced to the whole series." Just then she heard a grumbling sound. One that came from her stomach, "Crud. I'm hungry."

"Looks like we need to get some food." Kianna stifled her laughter. "I know we can't go outside looking like this. Maybe you can use your powers to make us look different." 

"Forget it. Not only am I nowhere near that good at telepathy, which I haven't even tried yet, I am not going to make people think we are something we aren't." Paige shook her head as she began to strip off her bodysuit. "There's a less complicated way."

"What are you doing?" Kianna asked, but didn't have to wait long to get an answer as she saw Paige putting on her discarded jeans and t-shirt, though both fit a bit more snugly on her new body. 

"Get dressed, okay?" Paige said pulling on her denim jacket. "I'd like to go hit the food courts as soon as possible."

"Okay," Kianna agreed. "I'll try to see if my old clothes still fit me." She walked over towards where she left her normal clothes and started to change into them.

Paige tapped her foot, waiting for Kianna to come out of the back. She had already gotten her purse but as she turned back she saw herself once again in the mirror. __If this keeps happening I'll start to think I'm vain about my looks.__ But as she looked at herself, in normal clothes, she ended up having a different thought. __Though I have to say, I look soooo hot.__

When she had finally changed, Kianna noticed that her clothing was a bit tighter than before, but she still could move around with no problem. She had to use her scrunchie from her purse in order to keep her hair from flying into her face. "Well, at least they fit... barely." 

"Maybe we should go buy some bigger clothes while we are out," Paige suggested.

"True, I can see places where I've grown," Kianna giggled. 

"Me too," Paige laughed as well. Even if she couldn't change back to her real body, it wasn't a total loss. She did after all have a body that most girls she knew would literally kill for. "What do you think we should hit first? I say food court but if you want to buy some bigger clothes we can do that first."

"I say we hit the food court," Kianna said. 

"Great. I've got a craving for two double whoppers from Burger King." Paige smiled but caught Kianna's questioning look. "Hey, moving things with my mind takes a lot of juice."

"Fine. Eat whatever you want," Kianna announced but a smirk formed on her face. "But last one there is a rotten egg!" And with that she took off. 

* * *

Paige had gone into Burger King while Kianna headed towards Subway. Even in this body, she wanted to eat right. When they had purchased their food, they met outside at one of the tables.

"I know I shouldn't have two." Paige shook her head, as she put down her tray which held two double whoppers, a king size drink and king size fries. "But I've never been this hungry in my entire life." 

"Whatever," Kianna said as she started to unwrap her vegetarian hero sandwich. 

Paige also unwrapped her first burger and started to eat it, "Hmm. Has to be the hunger, I don't think I've tasted anything this good before." She looked at her friend seriously, "It is really amazing how this whole day has turned out, isn't it?"

"You said it," Kianna agreed. "Who would have ever thought you'd inherit a shop with magic costumes in it." 

Paige noticed several guys at a table looking towards her. __Oh my God! Are they like looking at me? Or Kianna for that matter?__ she decided to wink and saw them react. __Oh my God they are! They are staring at us! They think we're hot!__

Kianna heard something in her mind. She looked up at her best friend with a questioning look. Since her back was turned towards the guys, she didn't notice them staring. "Did you say something?"

Paige just blinked, not even realizing what she had done until Kianna spoke to her. "...Oh boy..." She put her hands over her face.

Smirking, Kianna informed her, "You've learned how to use your telepathy." Her voice was in a low whisper. "Now, what was that about cute guys?" 

* * *

They arrived back at the shop about an hour later, toting with them a few bags of clothing along with their leftover food. The clothing was of course made to fit on their present bodies.

"I never felt so many eyes just staring at me in my life," Paige mused as she took a seat on the floor of her store. "I mean, men and women were looking at both of us. Men because they probably wanted a date with us, women because they wanted to be like us."

"You said it." Kianna flopped onto the chair. "Man, how does Storm ever go around in these high heels? They're killing me." She took off the shoes as soon as she sat down. 

"You said it, though I got to admit, it was really cool today." Paige lay down, stretching her arms, her face looking absolutely happy despite the circumstances. "I know we're trapped in these bodies... but it could have been way worse."

"Worse?" Kianna asked.

"Yeah," Paige said with a smirk as she sat up to look at her. "I could have put on that Hillary Clinton outfit they have in the back. I don't know if it's like the Jean suit I have but still..." she shivered in mock horror, "There's a body I would hate to have."

"What about that Barney outfit stashed in the darkest corner?" Kianna shuddered at the thought. "I can't think of a worse outfit than that -- with the Teletubbies coming close." 

"Oh, don't even joke about that!" 

Kianna just laughed with her. "Come on and let's see what we can find for sleeping arrangements here."

"I hear ya."

* * *

The mall was beginning to wind down now, people were starting to go home while others were trying to finish up their shopping. Two young men in particular now have our focus. 

"You have to loosen up, Brian. It's not going to kill you to have some fun," the one with long light brown hair in a pony tail that went to his shoulder blades said as he glanced over at his friend, another young man with sandy blond hair and blue eyes. 

"I have fun when I'm training, Shane," Brian replied. "I was going to train all night until you talked me into coming with you to the mall. All I've seen so far is a bunch of airheads only interested in showing off their cleavage. Aren't there any intelligent women left in North Ridge?" 

"You'll find them in the book store," Shane teased his friend. "Come on, before they close, I want to check out their sports store for their sale on baseball equipment. I heard a new shipment of bats came in and they're clearing out their old stock." 

"Forget it. It's late and my folks have a curfew rule. If there's one thing I'll enjoy about college come September, it's that I won't have to worry about that rule when I'm living away from home." 

"Aw, come on," Shane insisted. "I spent four hours helping you train for the martial arts tournament. Couldn't we take twenty minutes just to take a look at the sports store?"

"That was last month, and I gave you Lincoln Park tickets to pay you back." Brian shook his head. "Look, we're already at the door. We're going."

"Hey, look over there!" Shane raced over towards the old costume shop. Every year his parents had brought him here to buy his Halloween costumes until they went out of business. "It doesn't look like they're open, but what the hey?" He pushed the door to find it unlocked. 

"Shane!" Brian snapped, but his friend had already gone inside. 'If he didn't have the keys I would have left him here. Why did I let him sucker me into coming here? So I could watch him try to flirt with women who have as many brain cells as Anna Nicole?' He went into the store to look for his friend.

"Too cool!" Shane called out excitedly as he found his way into the back room and held up an X-Men costume. Black pants with long silver form-fitting boots that went up to his knees, appearing to be made out of a flexible metal with a metal kneecap guard. A dark red t-shirt that showed a well-toned six-pack. To top the outfit off, a long brown coat, left unbuttoned for easier movement. There was also a mask, with black headgear that left his brown untamed hair and his face uncovered.

It was Gambit, the mutant who had the ability to charge anything he touched. "I wanna try this on." 

"What are you doing? You aren't supposed to be in here," Brian said, startling him. "Put that down and let's get out of here before we get into trouble."

"From who? No one owns this place any more. I say finders keepers," Shane smirked.

"You're impossible." Brian held his hands up. "Just give me the keys then, so I can get home and not get into trouble."

"Okay, fine. Guess you don't want to dress up to be 'your' idol, ne?" Shane smirked as he showed Brian another X-Man costume.

It was on a male dummy, a dummy that wore a blue form-fitting suit, which left nothing to the imagination. There were yellow boots and yellow bands around the thighs. A wide yellow belt circled the waist with the X-Men symbol as the buckle, above yellow trunks. Yellow straps looped over the chest, shoulders, and back, with the X-Men symbol in front. Blue covered the lower part of his head, excluding his face, which allowed his short brown hair to be seen. On his face, he wore a yellow metal visor with ruby lenses.

"Cyclops," Brian muttered, seeing his favorite X-man looking so detailed and true to life, not to mention so much in the buff, though his awe disappeared when he saw Shane's smug look. "We try them on, we take them off, and we leave. You got it?"

"Yes sir, Commander Cyclops," Shane said, giving him a salute.

* * *

"Glad I left the uniforms in the office before we left," Paige said. She and Kianna were back to wearing Jean and Storm's X-Men uniforms. She frowned as she looked at the door. 

"What is it?" Kianna asked as Paige went to the door.

"We didn't lock the door. Someone came in," she said, her voice serious.

"What?" Kianna asked. "Do you think someone went into..."

"Hey, I can't get this off!!" screamed out a male voice.

"Does that answer your question?" Paige snapped as both she and Kianna rushed toward the back room.

"I told you! I told you this was a mistake!" another voice called out from the back.

"Sue me," the first voice snapped back at the second voice. 

When the two girls reached the back room, they saw two guys wearing the Gambit and Cyclops costumes. "Oh great," Kianna groaned as she saw them struggling to remove them. 

Paige, however, was irate. "Oh, just great! Just what the hell do you think you're doing in my store?"

"_Your_ store!" the one in the Gambit costume snapped, "This place has been out of business for years!"

"Yeah, well, I own it now, hot shot. So if you don't want to get your ass handed to you telekinetically I suggest you..."

"Paige?" the guy in the Cyclops costume asked, confused when he heard her voice. "Paige McGrath?"

She was just as confused and disbelieving when she heard his voice. The voice of the guy that she could never forget. The guy she had had a crush on since the seventh grade. "Brian...Brian Hudson?"

"Okay..." the one in the Gambit costume said nervously. "So do either of you know how to get these things off?" 

"If we did, we wouldn't be in them ourselves, now would we?" Kianna said sarcastically. "Who are you by the way?"

"Shane Diego at your service," the man in the Gambit costume bowed. 

"Well, what ever you do, don't go around using your newfound mutant powers," Paige told him. "Same to you, Brian. I don't think we could afford any optic blasts."

"What are you talking about, Paige? What powers?" Brian asked, only to see an empty cardboard box lift up five feet in the air when Paige looked at it.

She didn't speak to him though she did reply, __The powers that you have from the X-Man costume that you're wearing. In my case, telekinesis and telepathy.__

"What the..." Brian stepped back as Shane looked at him in surprise. "You didn't just hear her speak?"

"And you call _me_ the psychotic one," Shane laughed. "You must have hit your head one too many times." 

__Do be quiet,__ Paige sent to him, also unintentionally sending an empty box flying at him.

Shane reacted on instinct and raised his arms to block the oncoming projectile, but he accidentally used his power on the box.

"Oh shoot!" Paige screamed.

Brian panicked, knowing that it would draw unnecessary attention, not to mention damaging the store. Before he knew it, he instinctively reached up to his yellow visor and fired at the box, causing it to disintegrate into dust. 

"That was a close call." Kianna let out the breath she was holding. 

Both Brian and Shane were in total disbelief about what had just happened. 

"Holy..." Brian started but Shane finished, "Shit."

Brian turned to Paige and asked, "How... how did this happen?"

Paige just sighed, not having any explanation, but offered her cell phone. "Better make calls to your folks if you can. We're going to be here for a while."

**To Be Continued...**


	2. Surprise Encounter

**_Disclamer:_**_ The X-Men do not belong to us, they belong to Marvel Comics. We do however own Paige McGrath, Kianna Lee, Brian Hudson, Shane Diego and Roxy Jones. If you have any questions, please contact either of us at ericpaladin@hotmail.com or nekowingzero@yahoo.com._

**The Masked Truth  
By David Knight and Wingzero**

**Part 2  
Surprise Encounter**

The first thing Brian Hudson realized as he woke up was that this was not a bad dream. No. It was more like a nightmare. He was still inside the costume shop that his buddy Shane had rushed into, just had to con him into putting on an X-Man costume, not realizing what was going to happen.

Now they, along with two girls, were stuck with the bodies and powers of the X-Man or X-Woman they appeared to be.

In Brian's case, everything he was seeing was now just plain red. __I wonder if this is how Cyclops feels. Not being able to see any color other than red. It's almost as if you're color blind. I really want to get back to normal. I can only imagine what my folks are thinking now.__

He walked out into the main part of the store to see the girl who was Storm already up, doing stretches. "Good morning... Kianna was it?"

"Yes, it is," Kianna responded. She was getting ready to practice controlling her powers. "Brian, isn't it?"

"Yeah, Shane's still sleeping in the back," Brian shrugged. "Paige still asleep?"

"She's still asleep," Kianna replied as she finished stretching. "How are you holding up?"

"Well, other than the fact I got roped into something I didn't want to do, just dandy," Brian said sarcastically as he took a seat. "...I don't know. I feel kind of color-blinded and if I take off this visor I'll be shooting off optic blasts. I liked Cyclops a lot because of his personality. Not because of his powers."

"Look on the bright side," Kianna said, trying to cheer him up, "You'll be able to help people, once you gain control of your powers, though life will never be the same." She sighed and continued. "I know you want to return to your normal life, but for now, we all have to deal with it and make the best of the situation." 

"I agree with trying to control these strange powers," Brian said to her, "However I don't feel like playing superhero in the real world. It's just... just not something I want to even think about right now."

"I understand," Kianna said, nodding her head. She concentrated on her powers and started to levitate off the ground. "It's going to be hard controlling some of my other powers though." 

"You mean creating snow storms, hurricanes and just simply flying?"

"I can manipulate all kinds of weather," Kianna corrected him. "It's not limited to snow storms and hurricanes. As for the flying, I would think it's the easiest to learn out of my powers." 

"I see," Brian replied. He stared down at himself, looking at his new body, the body of Cyclops, aka Scott Summers. Wasn't built like Wolverine but it was definitely more defined and built than his real body. It felt somewhat awkward for him to have this body. His martial art skills had made him lean and flexible. With this outfit though, well, the tightness of it did cut back on some of that flexibility. __Plus I think I could only just imagine what my parents would think if they actually saw me wearing this spandex suit. Heart attack city.__

Kianna hovered to where they kept the left over food inside an old fridge. She had used her powers to give it enough electricity to last for the night. "What would you like? We have a turkey sub, a seafood sub, a vegetarian sub, or a burger?"

"I can wait until the mall opens..." Brian started to say but soon realized something, "Actually I don't think I can since I can't go out looking like this and my old clothes won't fit on this body. The veg sub, please."

"Tell me about it," Kianna agreed with him. She handed him the six inch sub, since she ate the other half yesterday. "Paige and I had to buy new clothes." 

"Think you're going to need to get us new clothes then as well," Brian said as he started to eat the sub, "Especially if we're going to be able to walk out of this store at all."

"One problem, I had to use up my spending money to buy my clothes," Kianna said. "I have some in my checking account, but I'm trying not to use it too much." 

"I have about two hundred dollars or so in my wallet. Use it, but just for clothes for me. Shane will have to pay for his own," Brian replied.

"Sure thing, what size do you wear?" Kianna asked when she landed on the ground. She picked up half the turkey sub and unwrapped it.

"Normally a 36 waist 32 length for pants and large shirts. For this body I would say either a 38 or 40 just for space and shirts you could do an XL."

Kianna nodded her head. "We'll check and see if anything is on sale. I know these were on sale when we bought them. You're not expecting us to purchase your underwear?"

"Nope, surprisingly that was the only thing I have on under this body suit that actually does fit." Brian said.

Both of them turned to see Paige yawning as she was coming out of the office, her hair frizzled, "Okay... we also got to figure out about what to do about taking showers. After the day I had yesterday, I could just kill for a hot tub treatment."

"Yeah, and what will we do about soap and shampoo?" Brian asked.

"Buy it, of course, silly," Paige chirped.

 "Yeah, but the problem is money," Paige sighed, "Sooner or later we'll run out of our own supply and need more."

"Let's just hope we can figure out how to turn back to normal soon." Brian said.  
  
"I agree with that," Kianna backed them up. "Unless you can find someone who is willing to hire X-Men look-alikes."

"Only if they decide to go out and make another movie about them." Paige shook her head. "What time is it anyway?"

"Ten AM."

"Mall should be opening soon," Paige mused.

"I should be finished eating my breakfast and then we'll head out to get your new stuff," Kianna announced. 

* * *

Back in the storage area, Shane was waking up. His eyes blinked open as he remembered the previous day. He couldn't believe that he had the body and the powers of his favorite X-Man. 

It was then that Paige walked into the room. "Slept well on the floor Shane?"

"Oh sure, the floor was so comfortable," Shane said sarcastically. "I can't wait to sleep in my own bed." 

"That's only going to happen when one of us figures out how to change back to our real bodies," Paige said to him, "And don't be sarcastic or snappy with me. Right now we only have each other and we are going to need each other if we're going to survive."

"Sorry, I'm not a morning person," Shane apologized as he let out a loud yawn. "Maybe we can get some coffee. I need the caffeine after sleeping on the rock hard floor." 

"Well, if you want coffee, you're going to have to give me cash to buy you clothes."

"Huh?" Shane asked.

"Unless you actually want to go walking around in your X-Man uniform, I would suggest you give me what money you can and tell me your size." Paige said.

"Oh okay," Shane said, pulling out his wallet. "After some discussion he gave her money and his sizes."

"Okay. Come on and I'll show you where some food is." Paige led Shane out into the store.

* * *

It was another hour before the mall opened up, yet there had been someone hiding out in another area all last night, keeping herself from being seen by anyone.

Seventeen-year-old Roxy Jones had a pretty good thing here at the mall, as far as finding a place to sleep. First thing you had to know how to do when being a runaway, don't stay in the same place two days in a row. Have at least three other spots ready and alternate between them, making it look random when it really wasn't. This way no one knew you were someone not normal. Someone who didn't have a home.

__No f'ing way I am going back to that hellhole. I'd rather put a bullet in my brain first,__ the young girl swore as she ran a hand through her messy pink locks. She took a shower as often as she could, using public facilities like the high school gym showers. Since she was a teenager, it wouldn't be unnatural for her to be seen in a school.

As she was walking into the more abandoned part of the mall, around a year ago she had thought she had found a place that could have been a real safe haven for her. She would have thought that demolition companies would have tore it down or someone would have bought it. No one did though, and it remained abandoned. She spent a rather nice Christmas safe and sound in that store. One of the best nights she had slept ever in her life. 

She never expected to find people in there. 

When she started to see the door opening, Roxy hid in the doorway of another shop but kept looking out to see who was coming out. What she saw were the two girls from last night. The white haired African American and the sexy red head. Only difference now was that they were wearing normal clothes instead of X-men outfits.

After they had walked away far enough, she took a peek through the costume shop window and saw Gambit stuffing his face with a burger while Cyclops was just doing pushups.

__Either they are psychotic, just plain screwy or they now own the place,__ Roxy scowled. __... or they are like me.__

Either way, she knew that her place had been compromised. She'd leave for now, but keep a look out on them. As soon as all four of these weirdoes were out of the store, she'd go back in and pick up what she left behind a few nights ago. 

She wouldn't leave her treasure behind.

No way in hell.

* * *

"Well you've pretty much managed to eat just about everything else they had in the fridge," Brian rolled his eyes at his friend. "Are you full now?"

"Hey, I only had one hamburger and half a sandwich," Shane huffed. 

Before he could say anything more, the door to the shop opened up and both girls returned.  Paige noticed Brian's face. Now he was not wearing the visor but instead the shades that Cyclops would wear when going out in his civilian clothes.

"Found it in back near the rest of these costumes. Maybe it just fell out earlier or something." Brian shrugged.  He took the bag that Paige gave to him and went over into the office to go change out of his spandex suit. After a few minutes, he was dressed in jeans with a blue shirt. He wasn't wearing anything as far as shoes, but went into the back to retrieve his old sneakers, which still fit him. 

__Damn.__ Paige grinned. __In that body, he looks yummy in just about anything.__

Once Shane had finished cleaning up the mess he had made eating, he took the bag that Kianna was holding out to him. It was his turn to change into street clothes. As he was changing, he noticed the differences between his body and Gambit's. 

"What's going through that mind of yours?" Kianna asked playfully.

"Nothing. Just thinking how much I'd like to have those..." Paige shook her head. "Oh brother! Where did that come from?"

"I think someone has spent too much time fantasizing over a certain X-Man," Kianna smirked. 

"Who said I was thinking about Cyclops?" Paige smirked back to her friend.

"I have my ways," Kianna said smugly as she turned around to sort through the rest of the costumes. She figured she might as well be doing something useful. Once her laptop was booted up, she began looking through her files. 

"What are you doing?" Brian asked as he was adjusting his sunglasses.

"I'm doing an inventory of the store," Kianna replied. She was typing away on her laptop and looking around the room. 

"Well, I think we need to do something else besides that," Brian said. "Like trying to find a way to test these powers without causing any real damage or being seen by anyone."

"As much as I wish there was such a place, there isn't in this modern day and age." Paige shook her head.

"Sure there is," was Brian's reply which made Paige stare at him. "That's what abandoned lots and junkyards are for."

"That would be especially good considering Storm's ability to manipulate the weather," Kianna mused out loud. 

"No kidding," Shane agreed with the rest of them. He walked out to hear the last part of the conversation. "Gambit's powers aren't exactly a walk in the park either." 

"So I think we got it all planned out now huh? Well where do we go from here?" Paige asked Brian.

"The junkyard on the west end of town. Shouldn't take more than a ten minute drive from here going by car," Brian said.

"I say we should take our uniforms," Kianna spoke up. "No sense in getting our new clothes dirty."

"Yeah but definitely wear our clothes to go walking out around in public," Paige added.

"And let's not to forget something to eat if we're going to be away for a long time," Shane mentioned. 

Kianna shook her head. "Only you could think of food now."

"What?" Shane said, trying to sound innocent.

"Come on. Let's get going. This mall does close around nine today, meaning that if we have to get back here by then if we haven't figured out how to get back to normal." Paige said.

Though every one of them hoped that they did.

* * *

It was around noon when Roxy saw them walk out of the store, all four of them dressed in normal civilian clothing. She was sitting at a table, reading a newspaper. Well, pretending to read one. She needed to be close but look inconspicuous. It had worked in this instance.

As soon as they were far enough away, she picked the lock and the door opened. She went straight into the back room, knowing exactly what she was looking for. She had worn it so many times in the last year. She couldn't stop thinking how much better she felt wearing it. That her life would be so much better if she slipped into that skin for the rest of her life.

__Maybe I ought to. Maybe I should just show all of those ignorant pricks my real power. Make them feel all of the pain they have heaped on me,__ Roxy thought to herself, but put that away for now. She didn't want those negative thoughts to ruin this. For her, this was a sacred experience every time she put it... put her on.

On a female wooden dummy that she had just pulled out was a female body suit. One that wore a form fitting blue and yellow outfit that exposed her back. Down the middle of her suit, she had a strip of yellow that traveled all the way down to the beginning of her thighs. On either side of the yellow strip was blue. Over the head was a beautiful female mask, her blue headgear covering her cheeks, but allowing people to see her long untamed green hair and radiant facial features.

Roxy slipped the body suit on after stripping down to her undergarments. She held the mask of the woman in her hands, looking at it and herself in the mirror before she put it on over her own head.

Before her eyes, she felt and saw the change happen to her as it had happened so many times before. Latex skin became real flesh. Her muscles expanded to what the costume had implied. Comic book size bust became her bust. Most of all, her face was now her face.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Polaris has checked back in." the changed teenager said with a devilish grin on her face. __And this time, I'm not sure I'll ever want to leave.__

* * *

In the junkyard, the four teens had been practicing using their powers. Kianna had been able to get the hang of flying as if it was second nature to her. Paige was improving with her telekinetic and telepathic abilities. She could move larger objects such as chairs, desks, and furniture without sweating too much. Brian worked on controlling his laser eyes and his aim. At first, he missed his targets but now he was hitting them most of the time. Shane had taken to charging up small objects, since he wasn't ready to do anything large. 

"I think this is turning out well," Kianna said flying around one of the car stacks in the junkyard.

Paige was trying to stack things on top of one another now, starting with a desk followed by blocks and then chairs. "I have to say, it is getting easier to move things with my mind."

Brian was focusing on using his aim and intensity of his optic blasts and was using the special visor for that of course. His hit or miss ratio was definitely more than half now. He remembered how hard it was when trying to hit targets when just starting out but now he was starting to get the hang of it.

Kianna was about to say something when suddenly she heard something. //Where am I?// the voice thought. //What happened? Where are the others?//

"Did you say anything?" Kianna asked the others. 

"What are you talking about?" Shane asked, completely confused. 

"No. I heard something." Paige stopped her training as she started to look around, "I heard something too... It's strange though... it was if... I heard it with my mind..."

//Storm! I'm here! That flash of light... I don't know what happened after that... Scott?//

//I'm here, Jean//

Paige put her hands to her head, feeling slight discomfort. "There's someone inside my head." And as she looked to her left she saw Brian looking around as if he had heard something.

//Look like the gang's here, no?// An accented voice came through Shane's head. 

"Did anyone hear that?" Shane asked. "I thought I heard Gambit's voice, but I must have hit my head or something."

//Gambit. I can see you... but I can't, I can't move my body!//

"Was that... Cyclops?" Brian asked.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Paige screamed out, clutching her head.

"Paige!" Kianna went to her but Paige threw a chair close to her, trying to keep them back.

"Stay back! Stay away from me!" Paige screamed as she clutched her head and fell to her knees. "Everyone just shut up! I can't take this! I'm hearing too many voices running through my head! Why can't you just shut up!"

"Okay.........." Shane backed away from Paige. /Hello, voice in my head who sounds like Gambit from the X-Men, what is going on?/

//Don't ask me,// Gambit replied. 

//I would believe since the young lady has somehow bonded with Jean, she has acquired her telepathic abilities. Jean, please try and calm her down,// a voice that sounded like Storm requested. 

//I'm trying, but I don't understand how this could happen. This is my body though. How could someone else end up being merged with me?// Jean asked.

"Please... please just make it stop..." Paige cried as she was feeling the voices, deafening in her mind.

//Listen to me, please. You have to calm yourself. Close your eyes and just focus on a simple single thing. Something that makes you happy. This will zone out everything else.//

Paige did as Jean instructed, thinking of a nice quiet countryside she had been to as a child. She felt the voices dying down, becoming less deafening until they were normal. She felt someone behind her, helping her up.

"Are you okay?" Brian asked.

"Yeah... I mean I'm better now." Paige shook her head, "But this just entered a whole new phase of weirdness."

"No kidding." Shane completely agreed with her. "I thought having these powers was weird enough, but I thought the X-Men were only comics and a TV show." 

//Say what!!!!// Gambit exploded with anger. //Ooooh, whoever did this to us is in a world of trouble when I get my hands on them!//

"No need to yell," Shane said, wincing at the loudness. 

//Sorry.// Gambit apologized sheepishly. 

// Comics... and a TV show?// Jean thought. //We couldn't possibly be on Mojoworld. This looks like Earth.//

"It is Earth," Brian said. "And until just now we thought you were nothing but costumes we just put on."

//This isn't making any sense,// Storm said. //I wish Professor Xavier was here. Surely, he would know what's going on.//

"That was the same thing I thought," Kianna agreed with her. "I wish he was here. Then he could make sense of this mess."

"Wish who was here?" Shane asked. 

//Probably talking about Xavier.// Gambit relayed the info. 

//Cyclops, do you have any plans?// Storm inquired. 

"Wait a minute!" Brian snapped, "Aren't we forgetting the simple fact that Xavier and the rest of the X-Men don't even exist in real life? I mean it would be saying the same thing as Spider-Man and the Hulk were real and not comic book characters."

//What?! They're not real?// Cylcops said to him.

"Okay... this is definitely sounds like something from a comic book," Paige muttered as she leaned up against a car. "Either we're all losing our minds and hearing voices... or..."

"Or what?" Shane asked.

"Stay with me on this one... but what if some amazingly powerful unknown entity decided to do away with all of the superheroes of the planet."

"But they are just comic book characters," Shane said.

"Only because we 'remember' them that way," Paige replied.

//Reality altering capability. Franklin Richards was capable of such powers.// Jean remembered.

//And we've known our fair share of cosmic beings. It's not out of the question to assume that one we may or may not have met before is responsible for doing this to all superheroes, regardless of them being human or mutant,// Cyclops analyzed.

"Not just the superheroes... but the super villains," Brian breathed. "Remember the Juggernaught and Pryo costumes along with the others. What if they're the same as the ones we are wearing?"

"Then this entity could have affected everyone. Both hero and villain," Paige gasped.

"Okay, so now what do we do?" Shane asked the entire group. 

//Cyclops, any answers?// Gambit asked hopefully. No response however. //Yo, Summers.//

//He can't hear you Gambit.// Jean said, //Apparently we can only hear the person who we are connected with.//

//Then how come you can, Red?// Gambit asked. Jean simply rolled her eyes as she replied, //Because I'm psychic.//

//I suggest we learn as much as we can before we make any plans.// Storm spoke. //Your thoughts, Cyclops?//

Jean relayed Storm's message to Cyclops who then asked, //Jean? Can you try to contact the professor?// 

//I don't know, Scott. Right now I'm just too disoriented to try. Later maybe, but not now,// Jean replied.

//Okay. In the meantime I think we should do some research,// Cyclops said.

"Research?" Paige asked.

//If the world truly is as changed as you make it sound, we need to know what it's like,// Cyclops said.

"Back to the mall then, to use your laptop, Kianna. Going to be needing it to check stuff on the Internet," Brian suggested.

"That sounds fine with me," Kianna agreed. "But we'll have to change into civilian clothes first. I don't think the rest of the world is ready to handle the return of the X-Men just yet."

"Definitely," Paige agreed.

* * *

Roxy was still in the mall, taking things in as she was teasing the men who were trying to flirt with her there. __Such pigs. They have no idea what the world is like. So trapped in their nice cozy posh houses and fake families. They have no idea what hell is like.__

Ever since she had found this so many months ago, she put it on every once in a while. Though that first time, she couldn't just take it off. __Well I learned how to fix that, now didn't I?__

She had already finished her meal, eating light of course, as always. Her body always felt better in this form than in her real form. She only had just enough to survive, but it was sure as hell better than being taken back to the hellhole she had run from.

Money was tight with her as always. She wondered how she was going to get more cash. __Either stealing, scamming or working. Either way, I'm going to need some cash soon.__ She didn't like to steal but had done it before to survive. She'd much rather work to gain her money. __And seeing as there aren't any job openings here, I better get looking.__

She was making her way out of the mall when she ended up walking past the four people who had come from the costume shop. She cursed chance, wondering what the odds were of that happening. Fortunately it didn't seem like they noticed her so she kept on walking.

It wasn't until she was outside of the mall and walking near the parking garage that she heard footsteps behind her and she felt her own powers giving a bit of a tingle. A smile came to her lips then, __Maybe I won't have to worry about money after all.__

* * *

"Something wrong, Paige?" Brian asked.

"You guys see that girl with green hair that walked past us?" Paige asked.

"What girl?" Shane asked. "Though if she had green hair I would have seen it. That does stand out quite a bit."

"I just... when I saw her I thought she looked familiar to me." Paige shook her head, trying to figure out this sense of déjà vu.

Kianna shrugged. "I didn't see any girl with green hair." /Storm?/

//... I have a strange feeling your friend is right,// Storm mused. 

//What are the lovely ladies talking about?// Gambit spoke up. 

/How should I know?/ Shane responded, completely stumped. "What are you girls talking about?"

Paige's eyes darted over to the back and she decided to walk inside.

"Meanwhile, we should just get started on research for our new friends," Brian spoke. "Kianna?"

Kianna nodded her head in agreement. "That should be no problem. I have a few websites in mind already." She headed towards her laptop and pressed the power button. "This shouldn't take too long." 

Shane dropped himself into one of the chairs. /Hey Gambit./

//Yes?//

/Do you know how you ended up like this?/ Shane asked. 

//I don't remember. There was a flash of light and suddenly darkness.//

/That's sad, but it makes you wonder who else was effected by it,/ Shane mused. 

//........ Hey Jean! Do you remember how many of us were there during our last mission?// Gambit spoke urgently to the psychic.

"Alright. We're all set up," Kianna said, "Now all we need to do is pick a..."

"Oh shit!!!" Paige's voice came as she rushed from the back.

"What is it?" Brian asked.

"The Polaris costume!" Paige exclaimed, "It's not in there!"

"Are you sure? You didn't misplace it?" Brian asked.

"Considering the consequences of what would happen if someone put any of the costumes in the back on, I committed to memory what was in there and where I put them." Paige shook her head. "It was in there this morning and now it's not!"

//This is bad news,// Gambit thought. //Very bad news.//

//Who else would be running around here?// Storm mused. 

"Well, whoever it was, that person wasn't a thief, because my laptop was left here," Kianna mentioned. "Besides, no one has been in this place for a very long time. Or did someone leave the lock open?"

"Don't look at me," Shane said, raising his hands as if to say he didn't. "I wasn't the last one to leave." 

"Wait a minute, you said there was a girl that had green hair that passed by us? Right, Paige?" Brian asked.

"Yeah. You don't think..." Paige started to say but then something cut her off.

*AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!*

*Please stop!*

"What the hell?!" Paige shouted, putting her hands over her temples.

//People crying out in pain. Your telepathy is still uncontrolled so you could hear it,// Jean told her but then paused. // ... it can't be...//

//Jean, what is it?// Scott asked her.

//Paige we have to go now,// Jean told her.

/What? But I don't.../ 

//If we don't, then there will be blood spilt and we can't have that! No matter what, we can't let that happen! Please just listen to my directions!//

Paige took a moment before speaking, "Okay Jean, tell me where to go."

//Out of the store and exit to the left. Hurry!//

Paige did just that, running out of the story in a hurry.

"What's going on?" Shane asked.

"Trouble. What else," Brian said as he ran after her.

Shane and Kianna glanced at each other before taking off after their companions. They had no clue what was going on, but they weren't going to sit around and let it happen. Not to mention, their counterparts wanted to help in any way they could.

* * *

"Please... don't hurt us..." a man in black leather groaned, his buddy already unconscious on the ground. The green haired chick was definitely more than they had bargained for. She fought like a freaking witch, physically and literally. They had thought to rob her, take her into the back of the parking lot and have a nice ride with her.

She didn't like those ideas at all. She was looking down on him and his friend, dressed in a black leather jacket she had taken from his friend, wearing a pair of blue pants with yellow boots and a green shirt under the said jacket. Her face though, looked like she was enjoying what she was doing. Stalking him and his friend. 

Still, he had one other weapon and he wasn't about to be bossed around by a girl. "Try this on, witch!" He flung his weapon at her so fast he didn't think she'd be able to avoid it.

She didn't have to... it just froze in mid air.

"Nice dagger." The green haired witch smiled darkly. With a wave of her hand, the dagger spun around in the opposite direction, pointed at him.

"Please... please don't kill me..." the man begged.

"Awwwww, who ever said anything about killing you," the girl said all too sweetly.

_*SLASH!*_

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" the man screamed as he felt the dagger ram into his shoulder blade.

"I was thinking more along the lines of torturing you, rapist," she spat.

The man was in serious trouble now, and he knew what she was. "Mutant whore."

When he saw the smile fade from her face, he knew that was a mistake. "No one.." She put her hand out and the man felt himself being lifted up ward by the metal coins in his pocket, by his belt, and by his own dental fillings. She looked him dead in the eyes. "And I mean no one..._calls me a whore!"_ Once she said that, she flung her hand to the left and before he knew it, he was sent flying against concrete support beam, his body connecting with it. Unconsciousness soon consumed him.

* * *

"Wonder if the scumbag actually survived," Roxy mused to herself. Scums like this made her sick to her stomach. Why didn't the police just put these animals where they belong. Either in jail or six feet under. The streets would be much better without them. Walking over to him, she checked his pulse. __Still alive, though he'll definitely have broken bones and a concussion. That's the least he deserves to get.__

There was one thing she knew about living on the streets as a fact. If you are weak, you're as good as dead. She once knew this girl, her name was Danielle if she remembered correctly. During her first month living on the streets she had shown Roxy the ropes of surviving, though she wouldn't enter her profession. That of a hooker.

It was that same profession that got her killed, along with her pimp and his other girls, by a rival outfit who had hired some mutant to burn the entire building down. 

She realized that all anyone understood in this world was power and she needed to either have it or know how to work with it to stay alive. One of the only good memories of her home was of reading X-Men comics, and the only character she liked was Polaris/Lorna Dane, who was a lone heroine type. When she found the costume, she thought to put it on just for the heck of it.

She never would have thought that she would have gained her body or her powers. __And learning how to control them has gotten me control over my other power._ _Roxy smiled to herself as she pulled out the rapist's wallet and found about fifty-two bucks in there along with some credit cards that definitely weren't his. __Best not to take them, otherwise I will get caught. Just the cash. Nothing else.__

As she picked up the man and hauled him over to his buddy, she remembered that it took her two days to finally figure out how the whole getup worked. As far as putting it on and taking it off, that is. Her control over magnetism was so much more than it had been six months ago. __I'm so very much the bomb. I have this power and no one can tell me what to do with it. Who could?__ she asked herself as she pulled out the other man's wallet and found less money than the first one. __Only twenty bucks. Crap. I was hoping for more. Especially with how lowlife looking these guys are... huh?__ She looked into the guy's back pocket and saw a ring... with a finger stuck in it. 

Roxy dropped it in a hurry, thankful that she was wearing gloves and that no prints would be left behind. However, her fear soon turned into an all-consuming anger. "You... you sick mother f'ing bastards..." Using her powers of magnetism, she pulled the two over to the center of the street and looked down at them, her anger reaching a breaking point. As she looked around she saw some steel bars. With only a glare she ripped them loose, to become floating arrows. 

She looked down again at the thugs and all she could see were monsters. Monsters that were better off dead. Justice had to be served. The police wouldn't do it. She could. She had the power. She had the right. "Get ready... to go to hell!!!"

"STOP!!!"

"Huh?" Roxy spun around, her concentration over the pipes not lessened at all as she looked back.

And saw the four X-Men wannabees in their civilian clothes looking at her. 

__Oh. Joy.__

* * *

"Now how do you suppose we are going to stop her without getting her hurt, or more importantly, us?" Shane asked everyone. 

"I don't know," Kianna replied, though she held her ground. "We only learned how to control some of our powers. Maybe our partners could help us or something?"

//That is not a bad idea,// Storm mused. //The only problem now is if we can take control of our bodies.//

//I'm afraid that's not an option Storm,// Jean said to them all. //I've tried to do that with Paige, with her permission, but I can't even move my own eyes. I can see through them but can't move them. My ability to use my telepathy is limited and I can't use any of my telekinetic powers.//

//What about Lorna, Jean?// Scott asked. //She isn't a killer. If she's like us now then why doesn't she talk to whoever is with her?//

//There's a lot of conflict going on in her mind. I can feel two minds crashing against each other, one is silent while the other is very much dominant,// Jean explained.

"And that must be the girl who took the Polaris outfit and is wearing it now," Paige reasoned.

"Okay, let's do this before anyone gets hurt," Kianna said as she flew into the air. /Storm, you'll have to guide me in using your weather powers, because I haven't mastered them yet./

//Of course.//

"And me without a deck of cards," Shane added dryly. 

//Very funny, monsieur,// Gambit returned. //Grab anything you can.//

"Step away from them," Brian ordered.

"One, I don't take orders from you," the pseudo Polaris replied. "Two, these animals were going to try to rape me. And three, they've already killed someone. What I am doing is justice."

"What you are doing is taking the law into your own hands!" Paige snapped.

"Better than giving them to cops that will let them go an hour later," the green haired woman returned icily.

"If you kill them, you are no better than they are," Kianna announced as she pointed towards the two unconscious and injured men. 

"No... I am better than them no matter what I do," she said, shaking her head. 

Brian however decided to take the option out of her hand as he blasted the floating rods with an optic blast and they were sent flying back, what was left of them anyway. "We need to talk."

The color on her face changed radically. "No... no, I won't let you... I won't let you take this from me!"

"What are you..." Brian muttered but the green haired woman just stared angrily at them.

"If you think I'm going to let you whack jobs take from me the only comfort I have had in so long... you're all out of your minds!" she screamed... and retaliated and several metal objects, trash cans and lead pipes went flying at them.

"Scatter!" Brian cried out as he and Paige moved to avoid the flying objects.

"Whoa!!" Shane yelled, barely dodging a couple of flying trashcans. 

Kianna simply flew higher and tried to keep out of sight. "If she keeps this up, there won't be a city to protect."

//We don't have time to play around,// Cyclops said to Brian.

/I know. Just help me figure out how strong to go,/ Brian asked. Cyclops started to direct him into figuring out how powerful an optic blast to use on the woman. Once he was sure of himself, he raised his glasses and let the blast loose, hitting her squarely in the sternum and sending her flying into a wall.

"Oough!" she groaned as she impacted hard, but was still conscious. She saw Brian advancing.

"Had enough yet?" Brian asked her. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Funny... but I won't let you take this from me!" She reached her hand out and Brian was on alert, trying to figure out what metal object would be coming his way.

He was totally unprepared for a fire hydrant to open up and blast him against a car with a heavy burst of water.

//Scott!// Jean shouted.

"Brian!" Paige cried.

/Storm, what do I do?/ Kianna panicked, not knowing how to help her friend. 

//Stay calm,// Storm ordered her counterpart. //Concentrate on forming a tornado and moving the water away from Cyclops.//

/I'll try,/ Kianna said nervously. She concentrated her power on forming a tunnel of wind directly in the path of the water. Hopefully, she wouldn't put too much power into the tornado.

"I don't get it. Polaris is a mistress of magnetism. Not water." Paige shook her head. "There's no way she could be able to control water... unless..."

//Unless the girl she's bonded with is a mutant herself,// Jean finished that thought. Through Paige's eyes she saw Brian getting up. //Scott are you alright?//

//Waterlogged... but otherwise still in one piece...// Scott replied.

Kianna redirected the water towards a different area. "Okay, you guys are up." 

"I'll distract her," Shane called out. He picked up small stones and charged them before he tossed them around her. "Go!"

The green haired woman managed to avoid the stones before they detonated. "Why! Why can't you people just leave me alone!" she yelled as she used her magnetic abilities to hurl more metal objects at the four of them. 

//She's just toying with us right now. Her control is good enough to hurl cars at us if she wanted to,// Jean told Paige.

/Then how do we stop her without killing her?/ Paige asked.

//We need to work together. You have to open your mind to me completely. By doing that it will be as if we are one mentally.// Jean started to lay down her plan. //Once that happens, I'll guide you into assaulting her mind.//

/You want to try to shut her off?/ Paige asked, aghast.

//No. Actually I was thinking of opening up her mind to another voice,// Jean said in such a way that Paige thought she was smiling.

/I gotcha./ Paige smiled as she started to open up her mind.

//Scott. We need her distracted.//

//I got the plan, Jean,// Cyclops returned. //Brian. I need you to aim your shots around her but not at her.//

"I gotcha," Brian said as he started firing optic blasts, weak ones, at the pseudo Polaris, however the shots were meant to miss, and to distract her.

//Try flying around her,// Storm suggested to Kianna. 

/Roger,/ Kianna replied. She then started to make complete circles around Roxy while going as fast as she could without becoming dizzy. /I hope she gets dizzy before I do./

//I hope so too,// Storm agreed with her. 

//Don't pick up anything metal,// Gambit warned Shane. 

/What do you think I've been doing?/ Shane huffed mentally. 

//Then what are you waiting for?// Gambit asked a bit impatient. //An invitation?//

/All right, all right,/ Shane said, hurrying to find more stones. Since he couldn't use metal, he had to find alternatives. Stones were preferable, because they were small and they were denser than some of the material there. He aimed each one, being careful not to hit Kianna or the green haired girl.

The pseudo Polaris was trying to get a lock onto Kianna but with her spinning and her friends' attacks coming her way she couldn't concentrate long enough to make a move on her. "Is this all you can do! Play defense?"

__No. It's not.__

The green haired girl didn't have time to react as she felt her mind being invaded by a presence. She screamed out and put her hands to her head. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"Paige?" Brian asked.

Paige wasn't responding as she was now just as frozen as a statue. In reality, she and Jean were now sharing the same mind, both of them working together in unison. Jean was the guide while the work had to be done by Paige, who was the one in command of the former X-Woman's psychic abilities.

They had gone straight into the young woman's mind and found a maelstrom of pain and misery. Rage against the world, but these were only the surface of the troubled youth's mind and they had no intention of going through her past.

They only came to fix the connection that had never been made... and they did just that.

"Ngh..." Paige groaned as she fell to the ground, blacking out for a moment.

"Paige!" Brian rushed to her as he also heard Cyclops call out for his lover.  

Meanwhile, the green haired girl was anything but pleased. That could be seen from the scowl on her face, "That's it! No one invades my mind! I swear I'm going to..."

//Jean! My God! If you harm any of my friends I'll make you regret it!//

The girl froze in her actions, her eyes wide as she heard the voice inside of her head. A voice that was not the one that had invaded her mind just now but was also not her true voice.

It was the voice of the person whose face she wore. "... L... Lorna Dane..."

//What the hell are you thinking?!// the former X-Woman roared, letting her anger be known to the woman she shared a body with.

"I... I was... going to..."

//Kill people in cold blood. //

"No! Not people!" She shook her head. "They are rapists! They are evil people that don't deserve to live!"

//The people that created the Sentinels didn't deserve to live, but we didn't kill them. The people responsible for making my own life miserable didn't deserve to live, but we didn't kill them. We do NOT kill... no matter what!// Lorna stressed to her, //And do you know why? Because it doesn't make us as bad as them... because it would make us LESS than them. Killing makes us less.//

The girl just took in the words, listening to what was being said, her rage dying. Hearing the voice of the only heroine she had ever had in her life, the only one she thought she was even remotely like... condemning what she was doing... and opening up her eyes to a mistake that would have haunted her for the rest of her life. She wasn't a murderer. She didn't want to become one. "... oh my God... what did... what did I just do..." Unable to contain herself any more, she just fell to her knees and buried her head in her hands, breaking down into a sobbing heap.

"Okay, now what?" Shane asked, dropping his small projectiles without charging them. 

//You go and comfort her, no?// Gambit suggested. 

"Me?" Shane asked hesitantly. "I'm not the best guy for dealing with this." He looked over at his companions, almost pleading that someone else go comfort her. 

Kianna, being the motherly type, flew down towards the green haired young lady and landed next to her. She murmured some soothing words as she rubbed her back, hoping that she wouldn't retreat from her. 

//She's going to be fine,// Storm assured her counterpart. //It will take some time for her wounds to heal, but I think they will, with the help of friends.//

/I hope so too,/ Kianna thought. /She needs all the support she can get./

//Jean?//

//I'm fine, Scott,// Jean said peacefully, even though Paige was still motionless. //Apparently even if Paige is rendered unconscious, I'm still awake.// She hesitated a bit before saying, //She's the only one that can feel any pain that occurs... I wish that wasn't so.//

// Jean...//

//She didn't ask for this, Scott.//

//And we didn't ask for our mutant powers.//

/Cept of course we had the choice of putting on what looked like a pair of costumes or not,/ Brian said. /Paige is strong willed even if she's shy. She'll be fine./

Jean sighed, deciding to believe Brian in his words about her counterpart. //In regards to our friend who has bonded with Lorna, she's definitely a mutant. A troubled one. When we were in her mind I saw rage and anger against the world.//

//Meaning she could very easily go either way,// Scott muttered.

//We can't push her, Scott. If we do,// Jean lingered for a bit before saying, //We could lose her.//

* * *

Shame.

That was the predominate emotion that Roxy felt at that moment. Shame that she had allowed her emotions to get the better of her. Shame that she had allowed herself to get so angered that she was ready to kill people, even if they deserved it. Shame for attacking innocent people. Most of all, shame for being such a fool. The person she had thought to have looked up to as a role model, one that was fictional... was actually real. __And she hates me.__

//Hate, no. Angry with, damn straight.//

/L... Lorna.../

//I guess Jean managed to connect us properly. Can I tell you how much I have been kicking and screaming for the last six months trying to get your attention, Roxy?//

/You know my name?/

//There's not much I don't know about you, considering how you've been broadcasting your thoughts when you've worn me,// Lorna replied in a soft voice. //I have to say though, I was feeling very depressed for a while, finding out I had been reduced to nothing more than a piece of latex skin.//

/Reduced to... but... aren't you... I mean.../ Roxy's mind was a whirl of confusion, her thoughts of Lorna had been that she had been a fictional character, but now...

//I was once very much real and thought I was helping the world to become a better place... the only problem now is that I have learned the world has changed and it's as if we've all been erased...// Lorna shook her head. //Sorry. Not erased. More like reformatted by someone as a cruel joke. Nothing of Professor Xavier or the X-Men or the Avengers or Fantastic Four...//

/WHAT?! You mean they're supposed to be real too! You are yanking my chain!/

//Do you feel me yanking it?//

Roxy tried to come back with a snappy come back, something to say she was lying, not wanting to believe anyone but herself as she had relied on no one but herself for so long on the streets... but with Lorna, she could just feel, just know that she was telling her the truth. As she thought about Lorna, she started to remember things that had happened to her. /The time that I worked on levitating that Volvo... was that your idea?/

//I did what I could to help you. Even if you couldn't hear me, you could feel my nudges. You had to learn how to control my power without leveling whole buildings,// Lorna replied. //You have a lot of potential, Roxy.//

/Really?!/

//But you have so much anger.// It seemed as if Lorna shook her head. //I can't ask you to give it up. Or to trust people that you've never met. But those people around us, they are my friends and I trust them. Can't you at least give them enough of a chance to listen?//

Roxy was about to react when she felt arms around her body, and saw that it was the one called Storm hugging her. She was going to break free, but oddly she didn't. It felt... warm to her. A soft and gentle touch that she had never felt before in her life. Not even from her own mother, before she started to...

The sound of sirens started to fill the area.

"Looks like we have company," the one that was Gambit said.

"Someone must have heard the commotion from our attacks. We have to get out of here before we are discovered," the one that was Cyclops said, lifting the body of Jean Grey in his arms.

Roxy looked up and saw Storm looking her calmly and serenely in the eyes. "Please, come with us."

For the first time in a long while, Roxy wasn't sure what to do. She could just run, she had the power to do so. She could just stay, feel sorry for herself, and let the cops hang her out to dry as a mutant. Or she could put her trust in four people, having no idea what they were like or who they were under their X-Men identities.

//Give them a chance.//

In the end, she did trust someone.

She trusted Lorna.

"Let's get out of here," Roxy said to Storm, and the two women made their escape from the parking lot.

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
